Harvest Moon Through Time
by ribbetfrog
Summary: HM64 fic. This is about how various decades might have been through Flower Bud Village.


I thought of the idea of this fic during social studies when we began to study the twenties. The ages/times may be a little off because I don't know when HM64 takes place. Yes, the tenses are supposed to be different in the flashbacks. Anyway, read on.  
  
Stu had just received the most frightening of all assignments. The priest had been teaching the children about the different decades in the twenty-first century. Now he wanted Stu go interview some of the village people (not the band) who were alive during that decade to ask them what it was like. Stu sighed. At least he had to interview people from the twenties and thirties first. Maybe the elderly would be safer to interview.  
  
Stu started with the old carpenter, hoping that he might have something interesting to say. He walked into the old man's house and walked up to the carpenter.  
  
"Excuse me old carpenter man, can you tell me about your youth?" Stu began. The carpenter's assistants looked horrified  
  
"No Stu, you don't want to ask him!" Started one assistant carpenter, but the head carpenter, after hearing this, broke in.  
  
"Why shouldn't he ask me? Afraid that I won't stop? Durned youngin's," said the head carpenter gruffly. The assistants proceeded to run away as fast as their little apprentice legs would carry them.  
  
"They'll be back," muttered the carpenter. "Now you were askin' about my younger days? let me see now...  
  
The head carpenter, with hair and wearing classic twenties clothing, appears. Next to him is Elli's grandmother, who looks a lot like Elli.  
  
"Shall we head to the dance hall m'dear?" asks the head carpenter suavely. Elli's grandmother giggles.  
  
"Certainly. Can we do the Charleston?" she says happily.  
  
"I wouldn't think of not doing it!" replies the head carpenter. As they reach the dance hall, they see two other couples. These couples are the old couple that lives on the mountain and the midwife with the potion shop master. After dancing awhile, they run into Karen's grandmother, who looks like Karen, except with entirely blonde hair.  
  
"So," the head carpenter begins. "How's the legal production of alcohol going?" Karen's grandmother sighs.  
  
"People are just not willing to pay as much money if the alcohol is legal. I say restart prohibition!" proclaims Karen's grandmother. Head carpenter blinks, then walks back over to Elli's grandmother. After dancing a little longer, they all go back to their respective houses. The next morning the paper lands on a doorstep. The headline reads 'Stock Market Crashes'.  
  
"Ah, the Great Depression. Good times my boy, good times," said the head carpenter smiling.  
  
"But... wasn't the great depression bad?" Stu pondered aloud, confused.  
  
"Not the way I remember it," said head carpenter.  
  
The head carpenter is dressed like a hobo, complete with finger-less gloves. Over his shoulder he is carrying a stick with a bag at the end. Despite this, he has a wide grin plastered across his face. He walks to the cave in Moon Mountain and walks in. Inside there is a ratty old beaten up blanket and a fedora hat. Head carpenters grin grows wider as he looked at the only belongings he wasn't wearing.  
  
"Still livin' good," he remarks. "This calls for a feast!" he picks up the hat and takes out a little scrap of jerky, and immediately devours it. "Ha, Elli's grandmother broke up with me because she think I'm off my rocker for being happy during hard times, but I don't think I'm crazy," he states. "You believe me, right fedora?" after a bit of silence, head carpenter begins to look a little angry. "Oh, so your just going to ignore me, aren't you fedora? Well you can find another cave to live in. WE'RE THROUGH!" rumbles head carpenter as he throws the hat out of the cave. He then snuggles under his blanket. "Only nine more years until the depression ends. I'll make it," he says, smiling once again.  
  
Stu was confused.  
  
"So... in the 1930's you were an insane hobo?"  
  
"Well... I guess you could call me that," the head carpenter replied.  
  
"What about all the other old people? What were they doing during the depression?" Stu asked, half curious, half afraid.  
  
"Well," began the head carpenter. "Elli's grandmother lived off of her baked goods, because Flower Bud Village being a farming town not affected by the dust bowl, things like flour and eggs were plentiful."  
  
"If stuff you farmed was growing then how come you were starving?" asked Stu.  
  
"Starving? No, I never ate much, a scrap of jerky was a lot for me to eat," answered the head carpenter.  
  
"Well... then how come you were dressed as a hobo?" asked Stu, confused.  
  
"Hobo's clothes were comfy," the head carpenter stated simply. Stu blinked.  
  
"Uh... alright, how was everyone else living during the depression?" Stu asked.  
  
"Well, let see now... The vineyard was doing record business because people like to drink their worries away... the midwife married the potion shop master and the old people on the mountain married," said the head carpenter.  
  
"Alright," said Stu. "Now can you tell me about the war years? Did you fight in WWII?"  
  
"WWII? THERE WAS A SECOND WORLD WAR?" the head carpenter said, leaping up in the air in shock. Stu was surprised.  
  
"Umm... yea, remember? The axis of evil? The allied forces?"  
  
"Hmm... nope," said the head carpenter, shrugging. Stu was perplexed.  
  
"But wasn't anyone here drafted?" asked Stu. The head carpenter shrugged.  
  
"Yea, probably. I am senile. I do remember the war against those stupid blue butterflies though," the head carpenter commented.  
  
" The blue butterflies? Those are an endangered species..." Stu said, still confused. The head carpenter laughed.  
  
"Yea, they are now." Stu was more confused then he had ever been in his life.  
  
"And... why exactly were you fighting the butterflies?" questioned Stu.  
  
"Because they were eating the butter," informed the head carpenter.  
  
"But... as far as I know, butterflies don't eat butter..." Stu responded.  
  
"Then why are they called butterflies?"  
  
"Umm... I don't know..." Stu admitted.  
  
"That's the problem with you youngins' these days. You don't know anything. Now get out of my house," the head carpenter stated.  
  
"But-"  
  
"Don't make me get the blue butterflies," threatened the head carpenter. Stu, now very afraid, fled the house.  
  
"Hah, that will show that little kid, right Stu?" said the head carpenter. "Stu?" there was a silence. "Stupid little kid must've run away. Ah well, his loss." With that, the head carpenter stepped out the door and yelled, "You can come back in you pansy apprentices! I'm done droning on now!"  
  
Er... yea, I know that was kind of pointless. I've always liked history though and therefore decided to combine it with my favorite game. Coming next, Stu will interview Basil and Lillia about the sixties... they should know all about it being botanists and all... 


End file.
